Abstract
SUMMARY Sections 34, 35 and 41 of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria (1999 CFRN) guarantee the rights to dignity of the person, personal liberty and freedom of movement. These rights connote that no one shall be arbitrarily arrested; anyone arrested shall be brought before a court of competent jurisdiction within a reasonable time, otherwise such detention is unlawful; where a person is lawfully detained, it shall be under humane conditions. Despite these constitutional safeguards, people continue to be detained in detention centres beyond the permissible periods without an order of court and in inhumane conditions. Thus, unlawful detention is one of the challenges confronting the administration of the criminal justice sector in Nigeria. In 2015 the National Assembly, in a bid to address the challenges in the sector, particularly unlawful and inhumane detention, enacted the Administration of Criminal Justice Act (ACJA) which is generally perceived as revolutionary legislation owing to provisions such as sections 29, 33 and 34 thereof. These sections require the chief judges of the various High Courts to appoint a judge or magistrate to visit detention centres at least once in a month to review cases of unlawful detention and awaiting trial detainees. This article adopts a doctrinal research methodology in examining the impact of these provisions in overcoming the menace of unlawful detention in Nigeria. It examines the challenges that may confront the implementation of these sections of the Act, such as administrative bottlenecks and unscrupulous attitudes of the personnel of the various detention centres. The article makes vital recommendations on how to overcome the challenges of taming the negative tides of unlawful detention in Nigeria. Key words: Constitution; criminal justice system; detention centres; magistrate; Nigeria
Highlights
Domestic and international legal frameworks recognise the fundamental rights of freedom of movement, personal liberty and dignity of the person.[1]
Even though the Constitution of Nigeria recognises the rights to freedom of movement and dignity of the person, security agencies in Nigeria more often than not violate these rights with impunity
Unlawful detention based on arrest without warrant for non-capital offences is rampant despite being bailable offences
Summary
Domestic and international legal frameworks recognise the fundamental rights of freedom of movement, personal liberty and dignity of the person.[1]. The law enforcement agencies, the Nigerian police, in exercising their power of arrest have detained persons arrested for longer periods without bringing them before court.[9] This has led to the unwholesome phenomenon of ‘awaitingtrial inmates’, some of whom have remained incarcerated for longer than the period for which, if found guilty, they would have been incarcerated.[10] studies[11] have shown that at least threequarters of Nigeria’s total prison population are inmates serving time without being sentenced. It is not uncommon to have the police effect ‘weekend or holiday arrests’ of suspects with an intention other than suspicion of a crime but as
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